Golf

This site will introduce you to the world of golf. All important facts about golf is explained in 9 points.

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Golf - Etymology
The word golf was first mentioned in writing in 1457 on a Scottish statute on forbidden games as gouf, possibly derived from the Scottish word goulf (variously spelled) meaning "to strike or cuff". This word may, in turn, be related to the Dutch word kolf, meaning "bat," or "club," and the Dutch sport of the same name.

There is a persistent urban legend claiming that the term derives from an acronym "Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden". This is almost certainly false as acronyms being used as words is a fairly modern phenomenon, making the expression more likely to be a backronym.


Professional Golf
Golf is played professionally in many different countries. The majority of professional golfers work as club or teaching professionals, and only compete in local competitions. A small elite of professional golfers are "tournament pros" who compete full time on international "tours". The major championships are the four most prestigious men's tournaments of the year. In current (2006) chronological order they are:

The Masters
U.S. Open
The Open Championship (referred to in North America as the British Open)
PGA Championship

The fields for these events include the top several dozen golfers from all over the world. The Masters has been played at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia since its inception in 1934. It is the only major championship that is played at the same course each year. The U.S. Open and PGA Championship are played at various courses around the United States, while The Open Championship is played at various courses in the UK.

The number of major championships a player accumulates in his career has a very large impact on his stature in the sport. Jack Nicklaus is widely regarded as the greatest golfer of all time, largely because he has won a record 18 professional majors, or 20 majors in total if his two U.S. Amateurs are included. Tiger Woods, who may be the only golfer likely to challenge Nicklaus's record, has won twelve professional majors (15 total if his three U.S. Amateurs are included), all before the age of thirty-one. (To put this total in perspective, Nicklaus had won eight professional majors and two U.S. Amateurs at the same age.) Woods also came closest to winning all four current majors in one season (known as a Grand Slam completed first by Bobby Jones) when he won them consecutively across two seasons: the 2000 U.S. Open, Open Championship, and PGA Championship; and the 2001 Masters. This feat has been frequently called the Tiger Slam.

Prior to the advent of the PGA Championship and The Masters, the four Majors were the U.S. Open, the U.S. Amateur, the Open Championship, and the British Amateur. These are the four that Bobby Jones won in 1930 to become the only player ever to have earned a Grand Slam.


World popularity
In 2005 Golf Digest calculated that there were nearly 32,000 golf courses in the world, approximately half of them in the United States. The countries with most golf courses in relation to population, starting with the best endowed were: Scotland, New Zealand, Australia, Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Canada, Wales, United States, Sweden, and England (countries with fewer than 500,000 people were excluded). Apart from Sweden all of these countries have English as the official language, but the number of courses in new territories is increasing rapidly. For example the first golf course in the People's Republic of China only opened in the mid-1980s, but by 2005 there were 200 courses in that country.

The professional sport was initially dominated by British golfers, but since World War I, America has produced the greatest quantity of leading professionals. Other Commonwealth countries such as Australia and South Africa are also traditional powers in the sport. Since around the 1970s, Japan, Scandinavian and other Western European countries have produced leading players on a regular basis. The number of countries with high-class professionals continues to increase steadily, especially in East Asia. South Korea is notably strong in women's golf.

The last decade or so has seen a marked increase in specialized golfing vacations or holidays worldwide. This demand for travel which is centered around golf has lead to the development of many luxury resorts which cater to golfers and feature integrated golf courses.


Hitting a golf ball
To hit the ball, the club is swung at the motionless ball on the ground (or wherever it has come to rest) from a side stance. Many golf shots make the ball travel through the air (carry) and roll out for some more distance (roll).

Every shot is a compromise between length and precision, as long shots are generally less precise than short ones. Obviously, a longer shot may result in a better score if it helps reduce the total number of strokes for a given hole, but the benefit may be more than outweighed by additional strokes or penalties if a ball is lost, out of bounds, or comes to rest on difficult ground. Therefore, a skilled golfer must assess the quality of his or her shots in a particular situation in order to judge whether the possible benefits of aggressive play are worth the risks.


Scoring
In every form of play, the goal is to play as few shots per round as possible. Scores for each hole can be described as follows:


Fees
One must pay certain fees to play on a golf course. There are two different fees; the range fee, which is for the practice range, and the green fee, which allows play on the course itself. For nearly all courses, the range fee is not a prerequisite to play the course. The green fee may vary from the equivalent of a few dollars for communal courses in many countries, up to that of several hundred dollars for public courses. Many golf courses are not open to the public. These private golf clubs also have green fees, but in order to play, one generally must be invited by a member of the club. Discounts on fees may be offered for players starting their round late (on some courses, unusually early) in the day.

If the course has golf carts, there is usually a fee to use them. On some courses, walking is prohibited, and the cart fee is often included with the green fee. It is wise to ask if the green fee includes a cart, and if not, what the cart fee is, as well as whether a cart is required.


Golf clubs
A player usually carries several clubs during the game (but no more than fourteen, the limit defined by the rules). There are three major types of clubs, known as woods, irons, and putters. Wedges are irons used to play shorter shots. Woods are played for long shots from the tee or fairway, and occasionally rough, while irons are for precision shots from fairways as well as from the rough. A new type of wood known as a "hybrid" combines the straight-hitting characteristics of irons with the easy-to-hit-in-the-air characteristics of higher-lofted woods. A "hybrid" is often used for long shots from difficult rough. Hybrids are also used by players who have a difficult time getting the ball airborne with long irons. Wedges are played from difficult ground such as sand or the rough and for approach shots to the green. Putters are mostly played on the green, but can also be useful when playing from bunkers or for some approach shots.


Golf balls
Golf ball with a tough rubber core (with 1 Euro coin for size reference) The minimum allowed diameter of a golf ball is 42.67mm and its mass may not exceed 45.93g. Modern golf balls have a two-, three-, or four-layer design constructed from various synthetic materials. The surface usually has a pattern of 300-400 dimples designed to improve the ball's aerodynamics. The method of construction and materials used greatly affect the ball's playing characteristics such as distance, trajectory, spin and feel. Harder materials, such as Surlyn, usually result in the ball's traveling longer distances, while softer covers, such as Balata, tend to generate higher spin, more "feel" and greater stopping potential. Golf balls are separated into three groups depending on their construction: two-, three-, or four-piece covers. Generally four-piece golf balls tend to be the most expensive, though price is no assurance of quality. As of 2006 there are golf balls that utilize RFID technology, which allow golfers to locate errant shots easily using a handheld homing device.


Cost to play
The cost of an average round of golf in the United States is USD $36, and the sport is regularly enjoyed by over 26 million Americans and many more world-wide. Most regions of the U.S. feature public courses which strive to be affordable for the average golfer. Excepting public courses subsidized by local governments ("municipal courses"), green fees tend to be lower in areas of inexpensive real estate, especially the American South and Midwest. Michigan has more courses open to the public than any other U.S. state.

By contrast, green fees are more expensive, sometimes dramatically so, in more urban areas with high real estate values. Also, greens fees at some of the more picturesque and prestigious courses can be quite sizeable. Despite golf's popularity in densely populated East Asian countries such as South Korea and Japan, the citizen of average means is limited to hitting balls on driving ranges as play on an actual course requires memberships priced at several times the average worker's annual salary.



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